


Melting

by punkhale



Series: Fire & Ice [2]
Category: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Genre: F/M, HEA, Mentions of Sex, Post-Canon, Sober Beth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:06:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27726577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkhale/pseuds/punkhale
Summary: When Beth gets back from Russia she calls Benny.
Relationships: Beth Harmon/Benny Watts
Series: Fire & Ice [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029897
Comments: 15
Kudos: 371





	Melting

**Author's Note:**

> I can't get this show or this pairing out of my head so here we are. I haven't posted a fic in over 5 years so hopefully it's not garbage. If it is, don't tell me.

When Beth gets back from Russia she calls Benny. He’d told her not to call but then _he’d_ called _her._ Calling her in Moscow must have cost him a fortune and if he was willing to pay it on her account then Beth figured it was okay for her to call back. She owed her win to him and her friends but mostly to him. 

Townes had been the one there with her (and she was so happy he had been) but it was Benny’s voice that haunted her and his face she saw when she closed her eyes. The drinking, the pills -she had to stop. She was killing herself and by extension that felt like killing Benny and that was unacceptable. Beth had done a lot of damage in her life (like mother, like daughter) but she refused to inflict herself on other people anymore. She didn’t want to throw her relationships in front of a moving vehicle. 

For a long time Beth wasn’t sure she knew how to love. She knew chess and she knew pills, but love seemed illusive. It’s taken years for her to realize that not only does she know love, she’s surrounded by it. Laying in her hotel room in Moscow, sober as a judge, she could hear Jolene saying they’re family and Harry telling her he’s worried about her. She saw the collection of newspaper clippings that Mr. Shaibel had kept about her. She heard Benny asking her to come back to New York.

She had thought she had no more love in her life, thought it had been buried with Alma in a Kentucky graveyard, but it turns out she has it in spades. She doesn’t want to fuck it up anymore. She’d so tired of fucking it all up.

She stands in her kitchen, twisting the phone cord around her fingers while it rings and rings and rings.

“Hello?”

She may be standing in her house in Kentucky but Benny’s voice on the other end of the line feels like home.

“Benny,” she breathes, suddenly finding it hard to speak.

“Beth Harmon,” he says and she can hear his cocky smile even from 700 miles away.

“You told me not to call,” she says, for some reason needing to remind him of it. As if he didn’t know.

There’s a sigh from the other end of the line. “I was an ass.”

She hums her assent. “Yes, but so was I.”

There’s a long moment of silence and she wishes she could see his face. She wants to be able to reach over and touch his hair.

“So what are you going to do now that you’re home?”

She doesn’t _feel_ like she’s home, not yet, but she doesn’t say that. Not yet. Instead she says, “still got that mattress?”

He laughs and the sound of it sends a shiver down her spine. No one has ever had that effect on her, not even Townes back when she thought she was in love with him. 

“I do but Harry punctured it so it’s pretty much useless.”

“Oh.” She tries not to sound too upset but she suspects she’s failing.

“You won’t need it Beth.”

“ _Oh._ ” This time she knows he can hear the relief in her voice. 

“I’ll buy some groceries,” he says and the line goes dead.

Beth picks up her suitcase, still packed up from Russia, and calls a cab to take her to the airport.

\--

Beth Harmon knows what she wants and now that she’s here in New York City she’s done playing games. Well, games that aren’t chess. She’s looking forward to playing chess with Benny again quite a bit.

When Benny opens the door she drops her suitcase and kisses him. He’s frozen for a beat and then his lips give way under hers as he kisses her back, hands coming up to cradle her face. His palms are warm against her skin and she wants to sink into him. She hadn’t realized how cold life without Benny had been the last few months. 

They kiss in the doorway like that for a long few minutes and Beth doesn’t ever want it to stop. Benny pulls away first, still holding on to her, reluctant to put too much space between them. 

“About the drinking-”

“It’s done. I’m done with all of it. I haven’t had anything since before Russia.”

The look he gives her is startlingly soft and if there’s any ice left in her to melt it’s now a puddle on the ground. “Okay.”

\--

They have sex and play chess for three days, content in their bubble, desperate to make up for lost time. Beth loves playing against Benny -she almost always wins. He only catches her up on occasion when they’re playing speed chess but even those instances are few and far between. She loves that irritated look he gets, quickly followed by a flash of pride directed at her that makes her heart sing. She thinks he gets off on her sweeping the floor with him.

The sex is incredible. Mind-blowing. It leaves them both feeling boneless and wrecked and it’s better than any drink or pill that Beth’s ever had. He worships every inch of her and she finds herself wanting to return the favor. She’s never much been interested in exploring with the other men she’d slept with, but she can’t get enough of Benny. She wants to worship every inch of him, too. 

Not that she would ever tell him that. His ego doesn't need the boost.

The apartment is awful. The only thing that makes it liveable is that Benny is there but she’s not sure how he’s lived here so long. It’s cold and dark and the noise at night is awful. And there’s still no couch and even though they share the bed at night, she really wants a cozy place to read.

She buys them a couch after a week. After two weeks she brings home a rug. A month later they drive back to Kentucky to pack up her house. Benny helps her go through her things and offers an endless supply of sarcastic commentary about her large closet and all her chess trophies. She points out the one she threw up in once and the look on his face makes her laugh. The house goes up for sale and they drive back to New York, the little Volkswagen stuffed full of mostly clothes and trophies and books. They have a new apartment waiting for them when they return and they put a chess board in every room. 

Townes comes to visit and takes a few pictures of them for another newspaper piece, something about the combined genius of two of the world’s best chess players. When he leaves they get into a huge fight. Benny slams the front door behind him and disappears into the night and Beth wants a drink so bad she can practically feel the wine hangover she would have in the morning. She takes a bath and lays down on the couch, rereading Benny's book for the hundredth time. She knows it by heart but it’s comforting, even in its egocentricity. 

Benny comes home around one in the morning reeking of coffee and other people’s cigarette smoke and she tells him Townes is gay. He fucks her over the back of the couch and she comes so hard she sees stars. They knock over a half finished game on the coffee table, sending the pieces rolling under various pieces of furniture. They re-assemble the game from memory post-afterglow and leave it, dragging each other off to bed instead.

In the morning they call Townes and invite him over for Christmas.

A few days later they resume the game in the living room and Benny tells her he loves her. She gives him a sly smile as her heart threatens to beat right out of her chest.

“Have you ever said that to anyone other than yourself, Watts?”

He moves a piece on the board and gives her a smug look. A tantalizing lock of hair has fallen forward onto his brow. “Your move Harmon.”

She reaches out and gives his hair a gentle tug, stealing one of his rooks at the same time. “I love you too Benny.”


End file.
